Ge­ne­ral in­for­ma­ti­on about com­mas:

four main groups

in­tro­du­cer com­mas

coor­di­na­tor com­mas >  link more than just in­de­pen­dent clau­ses

in­ser­ter com­mas

tag com­mas

in­tro­du­cer commas:

• fol­low the ele­ment that is in front of the first in­de­pen­dent clau­se in a sen­tence

ex­amp­les:

words: The­re­fo­re, I plan to go shop­ping.

phra­ses: As a re­sult, I don't have any money left for this month.

de­pen­dent clau­ses: Be­cau­se I have an empty clo­set, my mum re­com­men­ded a shop­ping trip.

di­rect quo­ta­ti­ons: "Go shop­ping with your best fri­end", she said.

Coor­di­na­tor com­mas:

• link equal ele­ments in a sen­tence, toge­ther with a coor­di­na­ting con­junc­tion

ex­amp­les:

two in­de­pen­dent clau­ses: His car was broke, so he bought a new car.

se­ries of three or more words: He likes to play foot­ball, watch mo­vies,lis­ten to music, and to meet his fri­ends.

se­ries of three or more phra­ses: Fire­figh­ters have to work on weekends, at night, and on holidays.

In­ser­ter com­mas:

• used be­fo­re and after an ele­ment that gets in­ser­ted into the midd­le of an in­de­pen­dent clau­se

ex­amp­les:

words: My brot­her, howe­ver, re­fu­ses to clean his room.

phra­ses: My sis­ter, on the other hand, al­ways cle­ans her room.

non­re­strec­ti­ve phra­ses and clau­ses: Sam, her boy­fri­end, is re­al­ly an­noy­ing.

Re­por­ting verbs in di­rect quo­ta­ti­ons: "I've tried to learn how to bake do­zens of times", she says, "but can't."

Tag com­mas:

• used when cer­tain ele­ments are added to the end of a sen­tence

ex­amp­les:

words: I like to eat lots of cho­co­la­te, too. I do not gain weight, howe­ver.

phra­ses: She plays her sa­xo­pho­ne for half an hour every day, for ex­amp­le. She also sings a lot of songs, play­ing gu­i­tar.

tag ques­ti­ons: That's very nice of him, isn't it?

di­rect quo­ta­ti­ons: He smi­les as he says, "Catch me if you can."

I had toast cof­fee fruits and some to­ma­tos for break­fast.



She cries as she shouts "I can't be­lie­ve you be­tray­ed me!"



Ner­vous­ly I loo­ked for my dri­ving li­cen­se.



After 12 years of school I fi­nal­ly pas­sed my final exams.



My mo­ther who just ce­le­bra­ted her fif­tieth bir­th­day en­joys hi­king every sum­mer.



Be­cau­se it is my bir­th­day I get a lot of pres­ents.



"May I have so­me­thing to eat" he asked.



My sis­ter howe­ver re­fu­ses to stop drin­king.



I like to go swim­ming too.



He plays table ten­nis be­a­ting me most of the time.



You re­al­ly like him don't you?



Jill likes chee­se cake but Fred likes cho­co­lat cake.



When my best fri­end was in Italy he often wrote to me.



My brot­her's girl­fri­end who comes from Aus­tria is re­al­ly nice.



Even if it takes all day I am going to clean the whole room.



I like to sing dance and to play ten­nis.